At the forefront of smartphone innovation is the Vivo v27 Pro, the latest addition to the Vivo v-series mid-rangers. This camera-centric phone is a considerable upgrade over its predecessors, bringing a new high-end chipset, revamped cameras, and a larger display. In this review, we’ll delve into the features that make the v27 Pro stand out and why it’s worth considering as a flagship killer.
Design and Display
The Vivo v27 Pro is rather lightweight for its large size, and it feels quite thin in the hand. Both the front and glass back curve into the plastic frame, and the matte finish feels smooth and is smudge-resistant too. The color change is quite neat, but that’s only if you get the phone in the blue finish. If you want to skip that, there’s also a regular black variant.
The v27 Pro’s display is a curved 6.78 inch AMOLED with a 1080p resolution and a 120hz refresh rate. With a pixel density of 388 PPI, content looks sharp enough on this panel and is quite contrasty too. There’s support for HDR 10 plus, and you can achieve great color accuracy depending on your color settings.
When it comes to brightness, the display is about average for the class. We measured a maximum of 480 nits with a manual slider, and this can boost up to 680 nits in auto mode. The refresh rate handling here is pretty straightforward. You get 120 hertz to smooth out your swiping and scrolling, and it will dial down to 60hz when idling to save energy.
Audio and Biometrics
Just like the previous models, the v27 Pro doesn’t have stereo speakers. The single bottom-firing speaker provides just average loudness, and the sound quality is average too, with good vocals but lackluster highs and bass.
For Biometrics, the Vivo v27 Pro has an optical under-display fingerprint reader. You can get the v27 Pro with 128 or 256 gigs of storage on board, but that isn’t expandable through microSD.
Software and Interface
The interface of the phone is Vivo’s Funtouch OS 13 on top of Android 13. It provides plenty of custom features. For example, the looks are a bit different from stock Android. Instead of bubble-style quick toggles, you get simple blue circles. In settings, you can customize the looks and animations you encounter throughout the interface. The recent apps menu is customizable too. You can choose between the standard Carousel formation or horizontal tiles layout.
One nifty feature is that you can launch an app or task by holding the volume down key. And an ultra game mode is available, and it even has an in-depth overlay like you’d find on dedicated gaming phones.
Performance and Battery Life
While the previous models ran on mid-tier Silicon, the Vivo v27 Pro takes things up a notch with its new MediaTek Dimensity 8200. It’s built upon a 4-nanometer process and provides flagship-grade performance. There’s also support for LPDDR5X RAM. In benchmarks, the v27 Pro tops the charts for its price range, earning higher scores than phones running on a Snapdragon 870, for example. Both the CPU and GPU performance are great, and heavy games and multitasking are no problem here. Even better, the v27 Pro does an excellent job when it comes to thermal management, putting out a great performance in our prolonged stress tests.
The Vivo v27 Pro has a 4600 milliamp-hour battery, which is slightly smaller than the v25 Pro’s 4800 milliamp-hours. However, it seems to be much more efficient, as the battery life here is a considerable improvement. The v27 Pro earned an outstanding endurance rating of 121 hours. There’s support for 66-watt charging, but the v27 Pro actually comes with an 80-watt charger, a bit of overkill. Anyway, with it, we were able to charge the phone from 0 to 42% in just 15 minutes and up to 71% in half an hour.
Cameras
Now onto the cameras, there’s a new 50-megapixel main cam that’s paired with an 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 2-megapixel macro cam. There’s also a ring LED flash, which you don’t see often.
The main camera’s photos are impressive, with flagship-grade quality. They’re incredibly detailed and noise-free, with likable processing. Colors are crisp and punchy, the dynamic range is plenty wide, and the contrast is pretty good. If you’re not fond of the vibrant color saturation, you can switch to natural color mode. These photos have the same high quality, just with more accurate colors and spot-on white balance.
The main cam offers two times zoom, and these photos again have the same great quality as the regular photos. It’s only the detail level that is less, but it’s still acceptable. If you shoot portraits, they’ll be at two times zoom by default. While the detail level isn’t exactly excellent, these are still great, with good exposure, wide dynamic range, and proficient subject separation. The one times portraits are actually not the most detailed either; they’re just as good as the two-time zoomed ones.
Photos from the ultrawide cam have good contrast, punchy colors, and enough dynamic range. The detail level is just average, but at least the level of sharpening is balanced. Close-ups from the macro cam are decent for what they are, but you can’t expect much detail from a 2-megapixel sensor.
In low light, the v27 Pro applies net mode processing automatically. These photos are superb, with great exposure, more than enough detail, low noise, and good-looking colors. The dynamic range is great too. There is also a dedicated night mode you can toggle on. There isn’t a huge difference, but you get brightened-up skies and slightly lower sharpness in some scenes.
The low light photos from the ultrawide camera are good. They again get automatic processing, and the exposure, dynamic range, and color saturation are great. The detail leaves more to be desired, though. The toggled night mode produces almost identical results. It sometimes brightens up the skies even more, but it may also introduce more noise.
For selfies, the v27 Pro has an impressive 50-megapixel front-facing cam, which also has autofocus. Selfies have an amazing level of detail and sharpness, with pleasant colors, spot-on contrast, low noise, and outstanding dynamic range. A great showing.
The v27 Pro supports 4K video capture at up to 60fps with both the selfie cam and the main camera. The quality from the main cam is impressive. There is a ton of detail, good contrast, spot-on colors, and balanced dynamic range. The ultrawide cam is limited to 1080p. These clips have an average level of detail and are a bit soft. The colors and dynamic range are good, though.
There’s electronic stabilization available for the main cam in 4k and the ultrawide camera too. For some reason, the selfie camera doesn’t support stabilization in 4k, though only in 1080p. In low light, the main cam’s 4K videos are good. There’s a lot of detail, nice exposure, low noise, and good color saturation. The dynamic range is just alright, though. There is also a night mode available for the main cam but only in 1080P. Still, the detail level is great considering the resolution, and you get superb dynamic range.
Conclusion
So, does the Vivo v27 Pro live up to its hype? The answer is a resounding yes. It’s an excellent mid-range phone that, in some ways, holds up to even flagship standards. You have the unique design, great battery life, fast charging, a powerful chipset, and outstanding photo and video quality from the main and selfie cams.
It’s not perfect; you don’t get stereo speakers, waterproofing, or stabilization for 4K selfie videos, but at the price this phone is going for, these aren’t too hard to forgive. So, if you’re looking for a competitively priced flagship killer/camera phone, the v27 Pro is definitely worth considering.
In conclusion, the Vivo v27 Pro is a great phone that offers excellent value for money. It has a sleek design, an impressive camera setup, and powerful hardware that can handle anything you throw at it. Whether you’re a heavy gamer, a photography enthusiast, or just someone who needs a reliable phone for day-to-day use, the v27 Pro is definitely worth checking out.
No dual speakers is a total no deal for me.
4k on selfie camera is excellent, but would have preferred it on ultrawide.